Learning in Action:: Designing Successful Graduate Student Work Experiences in Academic Libraries

How do you supervise a graduate student working in a library—and not just adequately, but well? What is a valuable and meaningful work experience? How can libraries design more equitable and ethical positions for students?

Learning in Action: Designing Successful Graduate Student Work Experiences in Academic Libraries provides practical, how-to guidance on creating and managing impactful programs as well as meaningful personal experiences for students and library staff in academic libraries. Fourteen chapters are divided into four thorough sections:

• Creating Access Pathways
• Developing, Running, and Evolving Programs for LIS Students
• Working with Graduate Students without an LIS Background: Mutual Opportunities for Growth
• Centering the Person 

Chapters cover topics including developing experiential learning opportunities for online students; cocreated cocurricular graduate learning experiences; an empathy-driven approach to crafting an internship; self-advocacy and mentorship in LIS graduate student employment; and sharing perspectives on work and identity between a graduate student and an academic library manager. Throughout the book you’ll find “Voices from the Field,” profiles that showcase the voices and reflections of the graduate students themselves, recent graduates, and managers.
 
Learning in Action brings together a range of topics and perspectives from authors of diverse backgrounds and institutions to offer practical inspiration and a framework for creating meaningful graduate student work experiences at your institutions.

Arianne Hartsell-Gundy is the head, humanities section, and librarian for literature and theater studies at Duke University. Her research interests include information literacy, graduate student pedagogy, collection analysis, and digital humanities. She is the coeditor of Digital Humanities in the Library: Challenges and Opportunities for Subject Specialists and an editor of this book. She routinely works with graduate students from library school programs in both internships and practicums.
 
Kim Duckett is head of the research engagement department at the North Carolina State University Libraries. Over the past twenty years she has hired, supervised, trained, and mentored many LIS students as well as coached and supported colleagues who supervise graduate students, particularly first-time supervisors.
 
Sarah Morris is a humanities research and digital Instruction librarian at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her writing has touched a range of topics, including academic library orientations, learning objectives for digital pedagogy, and digital humanities. She is very interested in graduate student training, mentorship, and compensation in libraries.